“Knock, knock Mr. Pig,” Jill taunted, coating her hand and then the sword in black flame.
Jill was a fast learner. The black sword bounced harmlessly off George’s shield, but when Jill put the point to the shield’s edge and pushed, it slowly inched in.
“I’m going to huff and puff and blow your house in,” Jill threatened.
Blue-shielded hands grabbed Jill back.
“Stop,” Phillip whispered in her ear.
William stood beside him, looking worse for wear. He was pale and sweaty, clutching at his chest painfully.
Jill could have fought Phillip off, too—she was that mad—but the next entrants to the room shut the fight down without question.
“Get your hands off that witch, Phillip,” Daemon’s deep voice commanded.
Victor was at Victoria’s side in an instant with his ninja swiftness. He quickly spoke to her to ensure she was uninjured. Then, he walked in front of William, pulling his sword from his back as he neared where George was still shielded.
“How dare you claim a witch you can’t protect,” Victor told William, giving him a pithy glance.
William was still sweating, although he was getting some of his colour back.
Phillip had let go of Jill at Daemon’s command. He foolishly stood between Jill and her sword to block her from George’s shielded threat.
He looked back at Victor and succinctly told his youngest brother where he could stick his protective streak.
Victor looked tempted to stab his sword in Phillip’s chest.
Jill was stuck in the middle of the three bickering vampires, looking ready to cut them all down a peg.
Daemon interrupted the squabbling by sending a sheet of lightning against George’s shield that flashed the whole room a blinding white before evaporating the black with a thunderous bang.
George was no longer sickly looking. He was on one knee, ready to spring back into an attack.
He had a larger curved sword than Jill, in hand, with another shorter sword hilt peeking out from his waistband.
She hadn’t noticed the small sword earlier. The both were simple, working weapons, without ornate designs.
It had been the male that had stood out in her first impression.
“Did you touch my witch, George?” Daemon asked.
“No,” George answered. He didn’t move from his crouch.
“Why did Elizabeth try to slice you to ribbons with the windows?”
“It’s a practice room. She was trying to impress me with her air.”
Jill’s sword shook with her fury. Her hand was still wrapped with black, although it was flickering in and out, over her sword.
“Pull it back,” Victor whispered to her.
He boldly put two fingers of his hand, not holding a sword, on her black-gloved hand and helped her pull the fire up her arm, into the centre of her chest.
He ignored her state of half dress. Unlike George, he didn’t get a sickly look from touching Jill.
“Did she impress you, George? You shielded black. It must have made you shrivel.” Daemon met the fiery glare George shot him with a wicked smile. “The only reason you’re still breathing is that you didn’t lay hands on her.”
“Do you think your claim is unbreakable? Nobody can shield all of the time,” George muttered.
“She has a Lasier. Surely you have heard? Victoria will steam your balls if you ever even think of touching my witch. At least, that will solve your shrinkage problem.”
“He grabbed Jill,” Victoria said. “We were doing the blood-oath and he saw her blue circle. He grabbed her before I could stop him.”
Then, Victoria had shielded Elizabeth first, before she could help Jill.
Admittedly, Jill hadn’t needed much help.
Also, no way Elizabeth would let her baby sister fight alone, again.
“I had every right to try for a blue witch when her claim wasn’t public knowledge,” George said, finally rising. He smoothly sheathed his sword as he rose. “And if William can’t protect her, then he doesn’t deserve her.”
“Do you rescind your claim, William?” Daemon asked.
“The claim did what it was supposed to,” Phillip interrupted. “All the healings have left him drained. She’s in my harem for added protection.”
George levelled a deadly look on Phillip and then William. “Do you want to challenge me for her?”
Jill threw her sword down and gave George her back, pushing through William and Phillip.
Her sister had the right idea.
“We’re done, Wicked. Let the boys fight over the biggest toy on their own.”
“Fine, let me see if Victoria wants to come. She knows where they keep the good booze.”
“Daemon? We would like to return to our rooms. Victoria should come with us, as well.”
For the first time since he’d entered the room, Daemon met her eyes.
The rage in them sent a shiver through her, even though she knew it wasn’t directed at her. His gaze took in her sodden clothes from the water-shield and her soot stained slippers. Her hair was a wind whipped mess of tangles.
She smiled at him, exhausted but safe.
“Have your mother check all of you over for glass pieces,” he finally said after looking her over.
He glanced at Victoria and jerked his head towards the door, dismissing her, too.
Victoria grabbed the tiny tube of her blood and scooped up the rest of her tattoo supplies into her box, quickly catching up to Jill and Elizabeth as they picked their way carefully through the glass covered floor.
“So, I think that was a good first day,” Victoria said as they were exiting.
The doors had been blown open so hard that they hung crooked on their broken hinges.
“We may have to scale down the complete and utter destruction a bit, next time, though. Father’s not going to be happy when he hears about what happened to his stained-glass windows.”
“You would think a practice room would be sturdier,” Elizabeth commented.
One of the males behind them snickered at that complaint.
“It’s still standing. That’s a bonus in this family,” Jill said.
Another snicker and then someone cleared their throat loudly.
“Please follow me and don’t touch anything else,” Victoria said with a long, suffering sigh.
Enemy of my Enemy
All of the males that had tasted Elizabeth had suddenly ended up in the same room together. A room with lots of pointy weapons and fire. That had been a close escape.
Thank goodness Jill had drawn their attention away from her. Hopefully, they didn’t figure out that they all were on Elizabeth’s dance card, while they had their brotherly chat.
Just in case she wasn’t so lucky, Elizabeth got drunk.
It wasn’t hard because she was such a lightweight.
Victoria had pulled out the sake when they had all been declared free of broken glass slivers by her mother and dismissed to Elizabeth’s room.
Her mother found out about William, from Jill, and the lecture had been enough that George and Phillip never got brought up.
Boy, oh, boy, and another boy. Yep, three hot, royal princes of hell. How did she get so cursed?
She needed a drink after her mother’s telepathic lecture about it all continued in her head.
Jill had been connected in a three-way while their mother loudly and angrily pondered in their heads how reckless her daughters were, and then started calculating their weight in stones, so she could sink their bodies to the bottom of the large pond by the castle.
If her daughters were so determined to kill themselves, then their mother would save them the trouble and do it herself.
It was completely illogical, just proving how angry their mother was feeling, especially when she thought it all in the most formal, long-winded monologue possible.
Elizabeth felt the buzz she’d been aiming for after the first shot Victoria had given her. A f
ew more could help her forget that twisted smile George had worn before he reached for her sister.
He was dangerous, unpredictable, and possessed a secret that could destroy her. The though made her head pound.
Victoria had gotten a servant to deliver a little bottle of aspirin to her room earlier, as she’d promised, and Elizabeth popped a couple gratefully.
She wasn’t the only one that had a headache, having given Victoria a magical rebound induced migraine when she forced her water circle to dramatically open.
She tried to hand Victoria a couple aspirin as well, but Victoria had turned them down, looking at Jill.
Jill had stuck her tongue out at Elizabeth and said ‘no pain, no gain’ before touching Victoria’s head with a single finger on her brow.
Victoria blinked a few times and took a deep breath.
Nobody would know that Victoria felt like a nuclear bomb went off in her head for an instant with her painful cure.
The way Victoria’s shoulders relaxed as her headache eased told Elizabeth that Jill still had her touch.
It hadn’t been her earth that Jill had burned to fight off George. The sickly hue George had gotten after touching Jill had likely been William’s claim magic reacting.
From the way William had looked, Elizabeth guessed the claim had gone all out, with Jill fearing for her life. It had drained William’s magic along with that chest crushing pain that had sent him and Phillip crashing their party.
Victoria’s info on claiming had been bang on.
Nobody questioned why Jill had acted like her life was at risk because George was clearly dangerous, but really, all he had done was pick up Jill from the circle.
He probably had the shock of his life when Jill had exploded in his arms.
Jill didn’t like to be touched, especially by strangers, vampires, and without warning.
Victor’s gentle touch had only been tolerated because he’d looked so similar to his harmless appearing twin.
Now, they were left with consequences best deliberated over a lot of sake.
“Liz, do you want to tell me when you got superpowers?” Victoria asked.
Hit of sake. “I’ve always been a breath of fresh air,” Elizabeth teased. It was easier when she was buzzing.
“I’m supposed to be your bodyguard.”
“Lasier, not prison guard, was my understanding of your assigned role. We need to discuss you locking me up for my safety. I have a strong dislike of being sent to my room.”
“Since I don’t know your strength, how can I let you play?”
Jill finished her sake and held her cup up for more. “I think my sister’s going to keep breaking things until you let her play. It would be less expensive to let her get mud on her knees, too.”
“You have bigger problems than your sister’s temper tantrum,” Victoria said, pouring the wickedly strong alcohol from her fancy teapot into Jill’s cup, until it was brimming.
“What do you mean?” Jill asked, throwing back the alcohol like a pro.
Earth witches. They were so seriously strong.
“Let’s show our ink,” Elizabeth said, well aware they couldn’t avoid this problem.
She gave her back to her sister to unbutton her. Daemon wasn’t around to do the task. Jill was already bared by her ripped dress, so her ink, or lack thereof, was obvious.
Jill wasn’t too drunk yet to handle the ridiculous row of buttons on Elizabeth’s gown.
Victoria had much simpler robes on that she was able to loosen by undoing a few ties to slip her robe down and expose her newly inked shoulder.
Elizabeth drained her tiny cup in one burning gulp.
Victoria’s tattoo was a storm cloud. It was a blob of ink with a jagged line running through it, but Elizabeth knew her lightning clouds.
She just had to hope like hell that Victoria didn’t show it to anyone else.
Jill’s snake-wrapped rose tattoo was so faded as to be barely visible. It probably wouldn’t last the night.
Elizabeth stood up and shrugged off her heavy gown, standing in her chemise and drawers.
The tattoo covered half her arm and her shoulder, stretching across her collarbone and down her scapula. It was so enormous that parts of it were still covered by her underclothes, but she had made her point.
Daemon’s protection was going to be a lot harder to break than George thought.
Jill hadn’t seen the tattoo earlier. Her jaw dropped and then she whistled. “So, you’re like a yakuza now?”
There was a giant dragon on a quarter of her body, so she could appreciate the comparison to a Japanese gangster.
“Daemon keeps feeding me and so it keeps growing,” Elizabeth explained.
“He . . . what?” Victoria asked.
“Feeds me a little bit of his blood.”
“Witches don’t feed,” Victoria said.
Right? “I told him that,” Elizabeth said, her swindle sense going off. She asked for more sake.
“I’ve never seen a claiming tattoo from a demon, so maybe they’re supposed to be big,” Victoria said, pouring the lubricant for this difficult conversation.
“Like ginormous,” Jill said. Her sister drank more sake. “Hey, if his tattoo is extra-large, then what else is—?”
“We are not going there. You keep your secrets and I keep mine. If you want to share, go first.”
Jill stuck her tongue out.
Elizabeth looked over at Victoria’s mostly full cup. “Hey, keep up. If you want to gossip, then you gotta drink.”
“I’d feel better if you let me send for my twin. He’d wait outside the door,” Victoria said.
Was the princess feeling outnumbered? Nervous? They’d been kind of enemies just this morning. It had to be awkward for her.
There really couldn’t be any harm in letting Victor warm their doorstep.
“Fine,” Elizabeth said, nodding.
Jill looked less comfortable about the idea, but then, she barely knew Victor and he’d gotten away with touching her.
While Victoria got up to tell a servant to fetch Victor, Elizabeth grabbed a nightgown from her suitcase and pulled it over her head. It was practically as big as her day gowns, but no buttons.
“Do you want to change, too?” she asked Jill.
She pulled her biggest gown out of her suitcase, knowing it would still be too short on the ankles and wrists for Jill, but her sister would probably rather be out of her ripped clothing before Victor arrived.
Jill changed behind the privacy screen.
“Who’s going to tell your sister that her claim is kaput?” Victoria asked Elizabeth as Jill changed.
“Tag team,” Elizabeth suggested.
Victoria looked confused.
Human terminology. It would be easier to take point than to explain.
“Drink,” Elizabeth demanded. “You need to catch up. I’ll take this one,” she said, calling to Jill behind the screen. “Yo, player. The boys are all hot for you and little mama, here, is worried about your virtue.”
“That is completely untrue,” Victoria protested, drinking a full cup in one go. She poured another.
“Can’t I go unclaimed?” Jill asked, coming out from behind the screen in her borrowed clothes.
She left the torn gown folded up on top of Elizabeth’s suitcase. Her sister was ever neat, even in the middle of a crisis.
“You flashed your magic boobies, sweetie,” Elizabeth said. “I don’t think the boys will stop squabbling until you pick someone.”
“George will never stop,” Victoria said rather darkly.
He had been intense. There were deep waters there and they would be best to paddle clear of him. Whatever kept George’s silence on her lightning could not be disturbed.
“Phillip already told everyone I was in his harem and William didn’t renounce his claim,” Jill said.
“Will’s claim is only worth the ink he puts on you. A faded tat like that won’t keep the other vampires off, unless he
reinforces it. He barely had enough magic to keep George back for a few minutes. I don’t think he’s even able to reinforce it right now,” Victoria said.
“George was crazy strong,” Elizabeth agreed. He had his own lightning, but she didn’t want to reveal that in front of Victoria in case his magic was secret, as well. “Can Phillip hold against George in a power fight?”
“Phil won’t claim a witch,” Victoria said. “Will and Phil are close. Since our father doesn’t feel Will’s fireless magic deserves a royal harem, Phil’s been known to share. Jill was convenient, and her earth probably was a novelty to Will since our father doesn’t bother to pay for earth feeders when fire and air are more important for Daemon.”
Victoria laid it out honestly, if rather bluntly.
“Yeah, they were the safe option,” Jill admitted.
She didn’t say if it had meant anything more than that and Elizabeth let it rest.
“George is going to keep coming after you,” Victoria predicted. “He’s got the strongest fire after Daemon and his earth isn’t like yours and Will’s, but it’s still significant.”
Earth he wouldn’t use to heal himself. He deserved it after what he did to Victoria. The pity Elizabeth felt for him was over.
“Why is he such an asshole?” Elizabeth asked.
No way was that sister torturing, blue freak samurai going to lay a hand on her sister again.
Victoria drank another shot. “His mother,” she said.
Victor knocked on the door. It was brisk.
The witches had their senses dulled by alcohol already and were a little slow to respond.
Victoria carried the teapot with her to answer the door. Jill and Elizabeth stood behind her in their voluminous nightgowns.
“Did you discuss it yet?” Victor asked his sister.
He peered over her shoulder, not difficult because she was so short.
“Not yet. We just got cleaned up,” Victoria said, pouring herself another cup of sake in front of her brother.
She didn’t move out of his way.
Point to Victoria. She wasn’t going to let her brothers push her around, not even her twin.
“Drink less, talk more,” Victor grouched at her.
He plucked the teapot from Victoria’s hands.
Every Witch Demon but Mine (Maeren Series Book 1) Page 35